Star Wars still rules box office

Star Wars: The Force Awakens saw its latest box office numbers soften a bit but it remains the unchallenged leader on North American screens as its record earnings continue to mount, industry figures showed Sunday. 

PHOTO: WALT DISNEY PICTURES

JAN 4, 20166:53 AM

[LOS ANGELES] Star Wars: The Force Awakens saw its latest box office numbers soften a bit but it remains the unchallenged leader on North American screens as its record earnings continue to mount, industry figures showed Sunday.

The latest Star Wars space epic took in US$88 million for the Friday-Saturday-Sunday period, down 41 per cent from the corresponding week-earlier period, Exhibitor Relations said.

But the film still accounted for 43 per cent of the combined ticket sales of all top 12 films. In its first three weeks the movie has now taken in more than US$740 million at North American box offices.

The much anticipated seventh installment of the blockbuster saga, showing on 4,134 screens across North America, last week surpassed the US$1 billion mark in global box office sales in record time.

A distant second in the latest numbers was Daddy's Home - a sharp-edged comedy about the uncomfortable competition between a stepfather, played by Will Ferrell, and the biological father, Mark Wahlberg - which took in US$29 million in the latest three-day period, down from its US$38.7 million opening weekend.

But The Hateful Eight, the latest film from bad boy director Quentin Tarantino, more than tripled its opening-weekend take to surge from tenth to third on the list, at US$16 million for the three-day period.

Holding onto fourth place was Sisters, a comedy starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, at US$12.5 million, followed by Alvin and the Chipmunks: Road Chip, with revenues of US$11.8 million.

Joy, whose director David O. Russell has known both commercial and critical success, slipped from third place to sixth, despite the combined star power of Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. It netted US$10.4 million.

Results for the rest of the top 10 were as follows:

7. The Big Short (US$9 million)

8. Concussion (US$8 million)

9. Point Break (US$6.8 million)

10. Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (US$4.6 million).

AFP

    
 

Oil prices jump over 2% on Saudi Arabia, Iran tensions

Oil prices jumped over 2 per cent in the first trading hours of 2016 as relations between Middle Eastern rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran deteriorated following Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric. 

PHOTO: AFP

JAN 4, 20169:59 AM

[SINGAPORE] Oil prices jumped over 2 per cent in the first trading hours of 2016 as relations between Middle Eastern rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran deteriorated following Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric.

Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday, responding to the storming of its embassy in Tehran in an escalating row between the two major oil producers over Riyadh's execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

Global oil benchmark Brent climbed over 2.5 per cent and more than a dollar to a morning high of US$38.50 per barrel on Monday, before easing back to US$38.28 at 0136 GMT - still up US$1. US crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were up 76 cents, or 2.05 per cent, at US$37.80 a barrel.

Despite this jump, oil prices are down by two-thirds since mid-2014 on ballooning oversupply as producers pump between 0.5 and 2 million barrels of oil every day in excess of demand.

"It's bizarre. We left 2015 on a low, but everybody knew that geopolitics can be one of the biggest price drivers in oil. And now we're back in the office to a new year, political risk is right back into the market," said an oil trader.

Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran early on Sunday and Shi'ite Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, predicted "divine vengeance" for the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, an outspoken opponent of the ruling Al Saudi family.

Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil exporter while Iran, which has some of the biggest proven reserves, hopes to ramp up exports following an expected lifting of sanctions against it after reaching a deal over its alleged nuclear weapons development programme.

"We are on track to see the implementation of the Iran deal move forward," said deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes in Hawaii, where US President Barack Obama is on vacation.

Iran's oil exports fell to around 1 million barrels per day (bpd), down from a peak of almost 3 million bpd in 2011, before the sanctions were put in place.

Iran plans to raise oil output by half a million to 1 million bpd post sanctions, although Iranian officials said over the weekend they did not plan to flood the market with its crude if there was no demand for it.

Hurt by falling prices, some Opec-producers like Venezuela are calling for coordinated action to cut output, but the group's biggest producers in the Middle East have so far shown no will to cut without a simultaneous reduction by other major producers like Russia.

Oil output in Russia, one of the world's three biggest producers next to Saudi Arabia and the United States, hit a post-Soviet high in 2015 averaging 10.73 million bpd, up from 10.58 in 2014.

REUTER
S

Australia, NZ dollars swept lower on broad USD strength

JAN 4, 20169:46 AM

[SYDNEY] (Reuters) - The Australian dollar kicked off the new year on a lower note on Monday in light post-holiday trade, but was hovering near six-month highs against a soggy pound.

The Australian dollar dropped to US$0.7233 against a broadly firmer US dollar, from US$0.7285 on Thursday, pulling closer to a trough under 71 cents touched mid-December.

Traders said the move was exaggerated by a lack of liquidity with many market players still out after the holidays.

The Aussie shed nearly 11 per cent in 2015 in a third year of losses on falling commodity prices, rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and prospects of slower growth in China.

Yet, the Aussie has proved relatively resilient to a sharp fall in the prices of iron ore, the nation's top export earner.

A source of major support for the Aussie is a global yield hunt with local 2-year government bonds fetching more than 2 per cent. This compares with near zero rates in Japan and even negative returns in Germany and France.

Sterling held at A$2.0326, having dropped 21 cents since June. A break under A$2.0161-68, the 61.8 per cent retracement of the March-August climb, could see a move all the way to A$1.8809.

Across the Tasman sea, the New Zealand dollar fell nearly 1 per cent in the session to US$0.6765 in light trade with financial markets there shut for a public holiday. They will re-open on Tuesday.

The kiwi lost more than 10 per cent in 2015, but dairy prices showed signs of bottoming out last year and analysts reckon this could give it a leg up over the Aussie in 2016.

Australian government bond futures were mixed, with the three-year bond contract down 1 tick at 97.950. The 10-year contract added half a tick to 97.1200, while the 20-year contract was up one tick to 96.6200.

REUTERS

    
 

Offshore yuan falls most since August as PBOC seen allowing drop

The offshore yuan declined the most since August after data showed manufacturing contracted for a fifth straight month, spurring speculation the central bank will guide the currency lower to help the economy. 

PHOTO: EPA

JAN 4, 201610:55 AM

[BEIJING] The offshore yuan declined the most since August after data showed manufacturing contracted for a fifth straight month, spurring speculation the central bank will guide the currency lower to help the economy.

The spot rate in Hong Kong's free market fell 0.5 per cent to 6.6026 a dollar as of 10:11 am local time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The currency in Shanghai, which is allowed to diverge from a central bank fixing by a maximum 2 per cent, retreated 0.24 per cent to 6.5095, according to China Foreign Exchange Trade System prices. That's the lowest since May 2011.

"The trend for the yuan to weaken is continuing in the new year as the People's Bank of China weakens the currency's fixing," said Eddie Cheung, a Hong Kong-based currency strategist at Standard Chartered Plc.

"The currency will drop further in the first quarter as China makes the exchange rate more market-driven." The PBOC cut its reference rate for the yuan by 0.15 per cent to 6.5032 a dollar on Monday, the weakest since May 2011. The monetary authority has reduced the reference rate by 0.49 per cent in the past five sessions.

China's official purchasing managers index was at 49.7 last month, below the 50 level that separates contraction and expansion, compared with the median estimate of 49.8 in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The survey-based Caixin China Manufacturing PMI index released Monday also indicated deterioration, coming in at 48.2.

The nation's policy will lean toward "a loosening bias" in 2016, as more supportive measures could provide a buffer to slower growth, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists led by Maggie Wei wrote in a note. The onshore yuan's trading hours will be extended to 11:30 pm from Monday, while the currency's exchange rate at 4:30 pm will still be used as the closing price.

BLOOMBERG

      

Proportion of big UK companies backing EU membership falls: Deloitte

Accountancy firm Deloitte said 62 per cent of CFOs from FTSE 350 and other large private companies backed Britain's continued membership of the EU, down from 74 per cent in the second quarter of 2015.

PHOTO: REUTERS

JAN 4, 20168:56 AM

[LONDON] The majority of big British businesses that favour Britain remaining in the European Union has dwindled over the last six months, according to a quarterly survey of chief financial officers published on Monday.

Accountancy firm Deloitte said 62 per cent of CFOs from FTSE 350 and other large private companies backed Britain's continued membership of the EU, down from 74 per cent in the second quarter of 2015.

The survey also showed business confidence fell to its lowest level since 2012, with companies putting more emphasis on cost cutting rather than expanding through acquisitions or raising capital expenditure.

Prime Minister David Cameron has promised a referendum by the end of 2017 on whether Britain should stay in the EU but last month gave a strong hint he hopes to hold the vote in 2016.

"A clear majority of CFOs continue to favour the UK remaining in the EU, but the proportion of those expressing unqualified support has fallen. This mirrors what we have seen from the broader public in opinion polls in the last six months," David Sproul, Deloitte's chief executive said.

A poll of Britons published last month showed nearly half are leaning towards voting to leave the EU.

Just over half of CFOs expect to see revenue growth in 2016, the lowest proportion in two-and-a-half years and down from around two-thirds in the third quarter of last year, Deloitte said.

Still, 68 per cent said they were optimistic about British economic growth in 2016.

A separate survey from the Confederation of British Industry showed Britain's economy finished 2015 strongly, although it warned there were significant risks from the global economy.

Hurt by slow demand for exports from a flagging global economy, gross domestic product grew 0.4 per cent in the third quarter, matching its lowest rate since late 2012 when Britain was struggling to recover from the financial crisis.

REUTERS